Renault employees speak out against engine decision

The Social and Economic Committee (CSE) of the Alpine engine manufacturer in Viry-Chatillon located near Paris has released a statement concerning Renault’s decision to end its Formula 1 engine program for 2026. Autosport has the story here.

It was reported yesterday that Renault/Alpine F1 team would seek a Mercedes engine supply for the 2026 season onward. The CSE had protested loudly over this decision and today released a further statement:

“All staff representatives, representing the voice of employees and a majority of stakeholders, regret and deplore the decision to stop F1 engines in 2026.

“This choice is endorsed by the group, which wishes to reduce the financial risk surrounding F1, even though no serious study has been conducted to assess the impact on future sales and the prestige of the brand.

Negative Camber

I am not sure that a study would be required to know if winning races or only winning one since 2019 has any brand impact. I think the KPI’s here are more important for an internal investment and would suggest those KPI’s weren’t met hence a re-application of resources needed elsewhere.

“Partnership solutions were rejected by the group, even though they would have made it possible to meet several objectives: maintaining F1 activity, reducing development and operating costs, maintaining all skills, and the possibility of bringing an already largely developed and promising RE26 engine to the 2026 season.”

Negative Camber

This is a decent point as they seem to imply that Renault may have done well to seek outside investors in their program to offset some of the investment as well as risk. Unfortunately, there also didn’t seem to be any other teams interested in an engine supply let alone external investors.

“The history of the Viry site shows that conflicting decisions have often been taken, and demonstrates the importance of maintaining highly qualified skills for the future in order to leave the door open to a return to F1 when the regulations and the financial context of the shareholder make it more attractive.”

“the lack of maturity of the projects brought forward and the loss of confidence in management pose a major risk of critical skills leaving the Viry site.

“Despite the turmoil of the last two months, the Viry team has continued to develop the power of the 2026 engine that Alpine is depriving itself of. This decision against the tide causes Alpine to miss out on its sporting history.

“For all these reasons, the CSE staff representatives unanimously gave an unfavourable opinion on the transformation project.

“We call on the public authorities to defend the sustainability of employment on the Viry-Chatillon site.”

Ultimately, a Renault engine has won one race since 2019 and that’s a tough pill to swallow even if you are convinced their engine program has great people and can do that job.

I don’t doubt they do have great people and perhaps they are, as the quote suggests, advocating for a restructuring and new leadership direction to more effectively apply resources to the situation. Apparently Renault executives don’t agree. It’s a sad day if you consider the 2006 and 2007 season or even those halcyon days of Williams and Renault.